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Digest

The skinny

By TIMES WIRES
Published May 19, 2007

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BRIDE & PUNISHMENT

WEDDING IS OFF, BUT GROOM'S VAN TAKES PLUNGE

Police say that bride-to-be Emma Thomason loaded up all the earthly belongings of her betrothed, Jason Wilson, into his van on Sunday. She then drove it to the harbor in Whitehaven, England, released the brake and watched it roll into the water. Apparently, the two had gone out to a bar, and she wanted to go home early while he wanted to stay out drinking. Here's to suspecting there's more to it than that. "I haven't told her yet that the wedding is off, but I think she can put two and two together, " said Wilson, who wouldn't seem to be much of a math whiz himself. "I can't go back to her if she has a temper like that." Thomason, out on bail, has not commented, but it seems doubtful she was interested in Wilson's return.

Rock is yours only if you say 'yes'

A court in Australia has ruled that if someone asks you to marry them, and you say no, you don't get to keep the ring. Vicky Papathanasopoulos has been ordered to pay her former sweetie Andrew Vacopoulos $15, 250 to compensate for the price of the engagement ring that she threw out, according to Australia's News.com. "I do not accept (the) contention that once (Vacopoulos) ... left the engagement ring on the table it became her property to keep or dispose of as she wished, " Justice Rex Smart said. It's possible the bride just got scared at the prospect of hyphenating her name to Vicky Papathanasopoulos-Vacopoulos.

FLAW & ORDER

Vandal conducts crime, electricity

Sometimes the crime itself results in the punishment. Police in Santa Fe, N.M., say Aaron Vigil, 18, walked into an electrical substation and started committing acts of graffiti. With spray paint. A liquid. On electrical stuff. (Don't touch electrical stuff with wet stuff. Ever.) Vigil was taken to a hospital in Phoenix where he is in critical condition with burns over more than 50 percent of his body. The substation has about 115, 000 volts of electricity surging through it, and serves 5, 800 houses.

Technology makes cops' job easier

It's getting harder and harder to steal stuff. Take, for example, the guy who emerged after seven hours in a Biloxi, Miss., casino to find someone had stolen his 2006 pickup truck. He called the police and OnStar, which always knows where his car is. The tracking company called police at 12:05:39 a.m. Sunday and told them they tracked the truck to Sildell, La. As it happens, one of Slidell's finest was in the area, and spotted the truck at 12:06:35, a total of 56 seconds later. "It's truly amazing how much technology has advanced over the years to help us fight crime, " Chief Freddy Drennan told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Help? Sounds like it did all the work.

Compiled from Times wires and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster.